6 Spiritual Lessons From Plantar Fasciitis
Remember my goal to do Romanian deadlifts in my bodyweight? Well, I’ve had a serious detour on that path!
I suddenly developed plantar fasciitis in my left foot in June.
I have been very tempted to think of this as a spiritual attack because I've been working on this goal for so, so, so long.
But now I'm thinking this is a spiritual setup. I've learned several powerful spiritual lessons from this situation. Let’s run through them to see what you can learn and apply to your own life.
#1 Keep Hunting For Answers Until You Get Them
One of my favorite verses for nearly a decade is this:
Proverbs 12:27
The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.
Boy, did this ever seem to be a long hunt. I went to three different chiropractors, got acupuncture, used red light therapy, laser therapy, Googled, used, kinesiology tape, and asked everyone I knew how to deal with plantar fasciitis.
I rested it, iced it, stretched it. Whatever a person would normally think of to help an injury, I did it. But nothing helped.
I kept praying for God to lead me to the answer. I truly believe in the ask, seek, knock process. Yet for months, I made no progress.
Which leads me to my next lesson…
#2 Stay Humble So God Can Truly Lead You
I was really running out of places to turn.
I decided to ask in a Facebook group about Fitness what I should do. And honestly their answers completely frustrated me.
Wear custom orthotics. (been doing that since 2013)
Wear better workout shoes. (I’ve always worn high-quality workout shoes)
Ice it ( Yep, been doing that)
Stretch it. (Been doing that too)
Like, do these people think I'm an idiot?!?!?!?
Everyone just kept on saying the same things, things that I had been trying for months already with zero progress.
I was so mad one day I almost just deleted the whole post.
Then one lady finally said something different. She told me to search for a certain trainer who did a video on plantar fasciitis.
Am I ever glad that I took a breath and decided to stay humble till God could come through for me! Because that little comment from the post I almost deleted was the start of everything changing.
Which leads me to my next lesson…
#3 The Problem Might Not Be Where The Pain Is
In this video, the trainer explained plantar fascia is completely different from what I had heard in the previous few months of research. He had stretches for sure, but they were totally different from the stretches that had been taught to me through other trainers or doctors.
And then he went on to say that the real problem was in a specific glute muscle that was too weak and wasn't carrying my weight properly. WHAT?!?
He then proceeded to demonstrate the dumbest looking move to strengthen that muscle. But, in keeping with the lesson I learned in number two, I stayed humble and did that silly-looking exercise. I was dumbfounded how just activating my glutes differently, half the pain in my plantar fascia was gone!
But I could still tell that there was more to this problem, so I circled back to lesson one and kept hunting. And that led me to shocking lesson 4…
#4 Healing Might Not Look The Way You Think
People can call it the algorithm, but I'm going to say it was the Holy Spirit.
After watching that video from that oh so helpful trainer, there was another video YouTube suggested that caught my eye. It was a two and a half hour video from a foot specialist. And a decent portion of it was about plantar fasciitis.
So I started watching. It became clear to me that a big part of my problem was that my toes were not very strong, and that while I was exercising or walking I was not sending enough of my weight through my big toe. The plantar fascia was taking on a huge load of weight that it was not designed to take on. So of course it got angry and inflamed and was causing me a great deal of pain.
Again, jaw-dropping revelation. I tried to do even some of the easiest toe exercises that were mentioned and I wasn't good at them at all.
The next day I very consciously tried to push my weight through my entire foot when I exercised or walked. I had almost zero pain!
Walking intentionally and consciously was so much less painful.
What if some of the pain you're experiencing in your life right now is because you're walking without a clear purpose? Without a clear direction?
The second part of her recommendations floored me even more because it’s 100% counterintuitive to what we are typically taught.
Healing was NOT going to come from RESTING it.
Healing was going to come from LOADING my foot properly.
So that means that…
#5 Carrying Burdens Not Meant For Us Leads To Injury
It was so mind-blowing to me how one day I could be hobbling around and the next I was fine just by shifting my weight through my entire foot and taking the load off the plantar fascia.
Let me tell you this has given me a new appreciation for all the verses in the Bible that talk about the body of Christ and how important to each and every part is. And how things can go wrong if each part isn't doing its part but rather doing someone else's part.
How often do we think thoughts like “I just need a vacation.”
What if you don't need a vacation? What if you just need to quit carrying burdens and work that was never yours to carry?
As soon as I started walking with my weight properly loaded the plantar fascia was fine.
What if you're not properly loaded? What if you're loaded with a purpose that isn't yours?
The Bible says “Come to me all you are weary and burdened and I will give you rest,” right? (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-31)
He also says “My yoke is easy and my burden is LIGHT.”
The word for easy in the Greek actually means Pleasant.
I'm not saying there's not going to be unpleasant parts to the purposes God has for you. I'm also not saying it's not going to stretch you because it will stretch you.
But if it's stretching and loading you to the point of injury like I was loading my plantar fascia, you're doing it wrong. It could be a clear red flag that something you're doing needs to change.
Red flags could be blessings in disguise, which leads to lesson number 6…
#6 Pain Could Be Prevention In Disguise
Did you know that toe strength is a predictor of whether or not you'll fall when you're older?
I've been in the health field for years and I'd never heard that before. But once I learned that, I'm looking at this situation completely differently.
I'm looking at God's kindness, God's discipline, God's guidance, and God's hand of blessing on me showing me this now and not when it's too late.
By revealing this weakness now, He has saved me from probably having a much more serious injury like breaking a bone when I'm older.
What if you viewed your circumstances as God strategically preparing you so that you avoid problems in the future? Problems you may not be aware of right now? But because God loves you so much, He's TRYING to bring them to your attention.
Doesn't that change everything?
Doesn't that make you love God even more?
How incredibly kind of him to protect me ahead of time by making me aware of something that I was clueless about!
Doesn't that give you new energy, focus, purpose, and determination? I know it does for me.
So, ask yourself some questions like:
Is this a spiritual attack or a spiritual setup?
What could God be teaching me with this?
How could God be preparing me with this?
How could this be God's kindness and protection?
What feels like a setback could actually be the setup for a safer, stronger, more purposeful future. God wastes nothing...not even plantar fasciitis. And He certainly won’t waste your pain.
In passionate purpose,
Dorothy